What’s it like to be refurbished
tackled or finger-printed?
It’s not something you can ask
but I’m asking.
What is it like to be watched
waited, frisked?
Whenever I worry about my suit
my transparency, I don’t think of brightness
but calories, phones, ancient trees.
Does it matter who Beyoncé was
or what shalala means?
It’s all dancing lies amongst truths
yours or mine.
Our threats are whatever
and whatever will save us.
We know plexiglass, expecto patronus
or police presence won’t save us.
I interpret the clouds
but they aren’t the rules.
The rules are comments and spam.
Go get the questions!
Where are the questions?
Answers are here, unasked.
My hands are softer than they used to be.

About Jill Jones

Jill Jones has published ten books of poetry, and a number of chapbooks. The most recent are Brink, The Leaves Are My Sisters, The Beautiful Anxiety, which won the Victorian Premier’s Prize for Poetry in 2015, and Breaking the Days, which was shortlisted for the 2017 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. Her work is represented in major anthologies including the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature and The Penguin Anthology of Australian Poetry. In 2014 she was poet-in-residence at Stockholm University. She is a member of the J.M. Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice, University of Adelaide.